Why Selling From Your Blog Is Okay—and What To Do With Those Who Complain About It

Introducing Dan Ariely, A NYT Best-Selling Author, And A Leading Behavior Economics Researcher

Look. If you’re an entrepreneur who sells software, consulting, information products, or coaching…

…the secret to thriving in today’s overcrowded marketplace requires you to MASTER the fields of psychology and human behavior.

And that’s why I’m pumped to have Dan Ariely on this episode of Social Triggers Insider.

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Dan Ariely is a professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke, and his research has been published in leading economics, psychology, and business journals. In addition to that, he’s the best-selling author of “Predictably Irrational” and “The Upside of Irrationality.”

Ever since I started Social Triggers, people have asked me what books do I read, and what blogs do I read. While I’ll likely never publish my complete reading list (you’ll be scared by it, trust me), I can tell you that I happily read Dan Ariely’s blog, and every book he gets published.

Did you know Social Triggers Insider is now on iTunes? If you enjoy this series, please take a few seconds and leave an honest review. It would be a huge help.

Here’s a list of his books:

1. Predictably Irrational (This book is one of the reasons why I became obsessed with understanding psychology as it relates to marketing. The study where he talks about decoy pricing is priceless.

I remember the first time I interviewed Ramit, he said the biggest fear moment for him in blogging was releasing his first product (a $5 ebook). Some readers said he “jumped the shark” or was “selling out”. So yeah, he focusses on delivering incredible value to the students who appreciate and take action on it.

I could go on longer than you about people who try to free load at my golf facility for lessons. I’ve grown my customer base (which rocks I might add!) from a hell hole of a facility to having 20 loyal customers in one month!

My experience is when people try to eavesdrop on my lessons, my customers love it when I run them off. The whole premise is they paid for a private service and that’s what I intend to give them. Funny part is the more people try to eavesdrop the worse they get because the lesson isn’t tailored for them anyway.

Keep on preaching the word brother! I hear you and I know many others hear you as well!

As a web designer, I get it a lot. Many versions, actually because there are so many ads out there saying that they do exactly that. My response varies depending on who is saying it and what they’re really saying, but it’s usually some variation of, “look into what you saw and if that seems right for you, go with it.” Sometimes I’ll briefly explain the differences, but as you said, if they are so convinced they don’r need my expertise, then they don’t really want it.

I had a meeting with a woman once who, after laying out the very intricate website she wanted, said, “You know, I could just do this myself with Yahoo site builder, but I thought I could get someone for their time. My apartment burned down last year and I don’t have any money to put towards this….”

Ugh!

The ads for all the site builders, super-cheap and crowdsourced web design really can do damage. They “prime” people inaccurately.

I had a situation near Christmas similar where someone approached me to buy our 2nd car. I offered a great deal (as it needs about $500 put into it before I could sell it) just to get it off my hands and sold that week, but he kept pushing, giving me an increasingly longer sob story (maybe true? I dunno).

In the end it fell through and I still have the car, but it’s interesting how far some people will try to push to get $10 off here, $20 off there and wind up ruining the deal altogether.

When I first started offering a few of the services you mentioned in the video I was scared to charge. From building a website to helping them with their overall online presence I would give them free assessments to prove that it would give results.

9 out of 10 customers took the free assessments and still had the same attitude of why should I pay you even when I gave them results.

I try to filter out those people a lot better know and stay away from them. I am very clear in what I am offering and even to make an assessment I have move into the role of creating detailed assessments where I can gauge if the person contacting me sees value in what I do.

Still working on grabbing the right balance of educating a possible customer and giving away the farm for free!

I just watch the video and I’m looking forward to listening to the interview on iTunes. I absolutely adore your personality – it shines through in everything you do and it’s backed up with smart, resourceful advice – every time.

I agree. Get the hecklers off your blog!

Depending on context, I’ve reached out privately to a few of the hecklers on the minor spelling or off-topic rants, and coming from a place of transparency, I thanked them for their input and taking valuable time from their busy day to help make my blog better. I’ve found in those few instances, they’ve become loyal fans who spread my content and in a few cases became clients. Again, context. It’s not right for every situation.

For the real a-holes, I put them on the d-list -as in DELETE! They are not worth the time or aggravation.

Great post, as per normal. Your post is very timely because we sell into a strange market: helping people who are applying for MBAs. This market is littered with “free” stuff all over the web, most of it garbage.

We are about to start experimenting with a freemium version of our product …. access to some of our videos. But all the tools, templates, live coaching calls, etc. require you to be a monthly subscriber. Will be interesting to see how this goes. Any specific tips from Derek (or others) most welcome! Launching this new version at the end of this week …

The problem with the free information, is that it’s often horrible. To really differentiate, all you gotta do is point out all the free information and why it’s bad. And then point out why your information is better.

With regards to freemium, I almost hate all freemium models, unless you’re running a service where people WANT to upgrade. As an example, Mailchimp has a freemium model, but every single person who gets Mailchimp has vested interest in becoming a paid subscriber because the more emails they get the better.

After selling hosting to someone at a MeetUp, a customer wanted all sorts of help with her website and had all sorts of questions. At the MU I mentioned clearly that I was available on a consultational basis to teach WordPress. It didn’t register with her and she hurled all sorts of complaints.

After trading several e-mails with her, I was tempted to offer her a refund, but she was so cantankerous that I opted not to and let her struggle on her own. I figured she had used what little money I earned on the hosting for my time.

The last part of the interview about explaining services in a meaningful way caught my attention too. And it also raised a few questions for me.

Would people be willing to pay more for insurance (or other services) that are described using technical language because they are perceived as more complex? Or would the average sale price increase if the services were presented in an easy to understand and meaningful way?

Derek, are there any studies or examples that might shine some light on this question?

Very Dope, Get off my list LOL, the audio was very interesting. I am one of those people who actually buy what I can get for free. There is just something that makes you feel good about using your hard earned money on a product you think will be better than the free product.

I just had someone ASK me to create a product out of my free stuff. They sent me an e-mail saying essentially, “I love your blog… when are you going to turn all the posts into an e-book that I can buy and read anywhere?”

Great stuff. A great bit of motivation for bloggers trying to start a business.

I’m glad you posted today. I’ve been missing learning some great tricks. I missed you webinar as my internet connection has been poorly. Some kind of acident with the company I think. I can’t wait to take your flagship course once I start selling a few stuff from my blog.

Noooo clue how you come up with this stuff man. This is totally what I needed. Love the passion, man and the permission to sell my stuff haha.

Seriously, I’ve had people do exactly what you mentioned about correcting misspelled words or comparing my products to other “similar” products and it sucks. But you are totally right., forget about them. In fact, maybe publicly letting your audience know that you unsubscribe people like that would lead to better and more subscribers.

Very true. When is the last time anyone received something for free and was happy with it? In our business, I often sell to people who have looked at cheaper products and want to know why mine is not as cheap. Simple… Because theirs isn’t as good as mine. As soon as I hear that, I give them a list of other cheaper products they should be looking at too. If/when they are ready for something that is ‘good’ they have my number. Cheap isn’t better. It’s just cheap.

That’s exactly what I feared when I decided to launch the consulting arm of my business. To combat that, we don’t offer anything for free, including the consultation. Also, we offer a service for maintenance at a monthly rate, for those who need questions answered, troubleshooting and support calls with app/service providers.

I stand corrected, we do offer a TON for free… content on both Firmology and Firmology Reviews. With Firmology Consulting, we put our knowledge to use for others who can’t or aren’t willing to do it themselves.

I took some time out to listen today and I’m glad I did. Psychology is so interesting and useful… especially in this game. I’ve got to learn to stop caring so much about the silly stuff and pay more attention to human behavior. It’s like a gold mine when you understand it all.

Coolio video Derek! Love the enthusiasm and being yourself! You had me watch it right through because of your compelling delivery. Great stuff. Been following you for awhile now. Human behavior, yup. And I hate the get stuff for free guy to. That mentality drives me nuts. I just say next!

Brilliant interview Derek.
The concept of people preferring to buy something is really interesting.
I watched a TED talks video last week about a guy who set up a scheme in Africa to help remote villages build lanterns so that they could be productive after dark. He found that if the villagers were given the lanterns then they didn’t take full ownership of them and didn’t make good use of them. However, when they paid for the lanterns they took ownership of them and the scheme was highly successful. These were people only earning 25c per day – perhaps the poorest people on the planet, insisting that they had to pay for something. Says a lot about the importance of pride.
Maybe with blog/training/information type content we see people like the “I can get it for free guy” because they believe that they were active in seeking out the content so they have done the minimum amount of work to feel that it is acceptable to claim ownership?

I really love the part in the interview with Dan about the locksmith. It’s the same with design. People often believe that if I can do it quickly then it must be easy, and changing their perception so that they understand that it took years of education, study, mistakes, and experience to quickly produce some creative ideas.

I’ve heard said (paraphrased poorly), “You’re not paying for the hour it took for me to design. You’re paying for the years I’ve worked so that I could design in an hour.”

As always, great information! Not only is it useful, it takes me back to college when I sat and listened to a professor speak about the topic that he’s devoted his life to and enjoyed getting smarter.

On that same vein, my dad was a financial consultant/accountant in the L.A. area. He refused to take doctors, politicians, or lawyers as clients because they were the first to get offended and respond with, “don’t you know who I AM?! You can’t tell me what to do.”

Thanks for the insight. I find the secrecy and taboo surrounding money/income (in the US anyway) a very interesting social study.

Hi Derek
Thanks so much for this blog post and the podcast. It’s amazing to think the decision which we (as humans) are making and not really aware of. I love the cake mix story and can’t believe that by having to add an egg provides ownership and hence more sales. Some excellent examples which can be applied to our own products.
Thanks again and I’d be interested to read Dans books – and will use your links – just to let you know.
Natalie

I have to admit that I’m new to giving away high quality info in the first place for free. I come from a corporate background where I was paid a lot of money for what I now do give away for free – because after nearly a year learning this stuff from people such as yourself, I’m relatively ‘sold’ on the freemium model (if done in what I consider is the right way).

Bottom line – we shouldn’t be afraid to give away our best content, because first of all, when you then package that up and charge for it, it’s justified – because it’s your best content and secondly, if you’re worth your salt there’s plenty more where that came from and all you’re doing with the free offer is convincing people that you can help them with their specific problems.

Mr I can get it for free is right – he probably can, but that’s his choice. There will always be others who make a different choice,

Just so you know, that egg/cake example is just a myth. It seems like it’s true because we like to think that housewives back-in-the-day cared more about perception/work than convenience. But, then, why would companies in 2012 still require people to add a real egg despite the fact that convenience is #1 today? Answer: because powdered eggs make SIGNIFICANTLY worse cakes than real eggs do.

In addition to the “I Can Get it for Free” simp, one of the things that has held me back was the fear that I wasn’t providing enough value to my clients at first. I think I’ve seen enough really poor quality products and services that I know I provide value, however, I need a little push in “getting over the fear” and realize that while not everyone will be happy, if I wasn’t providing value it wouldn’t be in my nature to be in this line of work to begin with.

Good stuff Derek. I often associate the “I can get it for free” guy as someone who’s jealous over the quality of your work. They are only announcing that they can get it for free because they are envious over the fact that you are selling such products/services and they are not in a position to do the same.

If they got their act together and had enough motivation within to go and get the information for free on their own, they would do, but because they haven’t, they search for the most miniscule little typing error in your content so they have an excuse to try and pull it to bits out of envy.

Yeah I’ve dealt with that. I’m a freelance web designer and I like to think I’m really offering my clients an amazing deal. But I often get the guy who’s wife is “REALLY REALLY GOOD with this internet thing, and she can do it for me for free”, or the woman who’s son is studying web design in college, so he can do it for free.

What is frustrating is that in most cases, I know this reaction is my own fault. The only reason these people are comparing these free options to my paid option is that I have failed in establishing myself as an authority. I need to find a way that will show them once and for all that nothing even comes close to the quality and value I am giving.

On an unrelated note:

I’ve got a blog (still in its infant steps) about fatherhood and I think it would be great to have Dan Ariely’s perspective on the topic you’ve discussed here but with relation to children. How do you recommend I get in touch with him?

Here’s a question – what to do when the “I can get it for free” guy is in my own head?

I’m about to release a product and technically, people could scour the internet like I did while doing my background research and find similar content for free (though in English, and my product’s in Portuguese. Target audience is Brazilian). Still, I’m imagining that people will take a look at my product and then immediately just google it to see what they can get without paying.

Should I bang my head against the wall a couple of times to get the “imaginary freebie guy” to shut up?

Great insights proving once again that what logic dictates is not what happens. I used to be a get it for free guy then i realized hey, this person had to work hard on this and the free version of some things
really sucks. Like playing Pong when you could plangy something more engaging

hi derek, my I love your posts, I always read them …
One question, how it is called the plugin you use to bring up the right side of the screen:
“RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
THE # 1 KILLER SALES ON YOUR SITE-AND HOW TO GET RID OF IT FOR GOOD “

My first experience with the “I can get it for free” was on my wife’s first book on Kindle.

We were getting a lot of sales and were up to 4 sales per day on the average and were watching it grow. Then it happened… We discovered the Kindle “Review Bomb.” The safe foods lists in my wife’s “How to Eat Gluten-Free… The Official Guide – 2012″ kindle book was too short for her taste but all she said that all you had to do is to Google “gluten intolerance” and there is plenty of information out there about gluten intolerance for free.

Basically, we were shocked and didn’t really know what to do about it. Kindle wouldn’t remove the review so we were psychologically paralyzed for several months until we got enough positive reviews and began marketing the book again. I tried to respond professionally to the complaint, changed the book to make the list longer and crawled into my hole and licked my wounds.

Any suggestions about the best way to do damage control with this type of thing?

i dislike that “i can get it free” guy to – these are the people who usually
never take any responsibility of their own success and results, play the victim ‘little bi*ch’ and alway’s come from a place of scarcity.

We attending a seminar with such a know it all parasite, the presenter blocked her by the last day. She disgusted me when she told us the strategies that she’d employ to get all the products and services for free. When she was finally cut off from dumping her negativity in the class’s presence, she was literally releasing her crap in the powder room which I quickly ran out of! Just because you have intellect, doesn’t mean you have character. lol…

Great audio. As a huge cat fan, I was very proud to hear my feline friends are such smarty pants.
We always do try in our business to convey the amount of work that goes into our services and business, but this makes me want to figure out more ways to really integrate that concept into our marketing strategies. Thanks!